Baseball Math Match-Up

My son’s baseball team is mid-way through the season and with each practice, I see a love of the game growing with all the boys on the team. It’s exciting to witness such enthusiasm, see their understanding of the game grow, and skills improve.

When I conceptualized this activity, I asked my son which sport (baseball, basketball, soccer, or football) he wanted to “play.”

“Baseball,” he said without hesitation. Of course.

I designed a page of four pinstripe baseball jerseys and printed three of the pages onto cardstock. Then I trimmed two of the pages so they were slightly narrower than the third (I wanted to be able to tape the three pages together so the two outer pages of the game board could be folded in on the middle page).

I laminated the pages, along with 12 cut-outs of baseballs. (Download a PDF of the jerseys and baseballs here.)

With the baseballs cut out, I attached velco dots to the back of each and the game board, beneath each jersey. I also taped the game board together, using clear tape on the back to “hinge” the jersey pages, putting the widest page in the middle.

Now, all that was left to do was write the players’ numbers on the jerseys and corresponding math problems on the baseballs (e.g. player 12 would be matched with the ball marked 19-7).

It was up to my son to solve the math problem and place the ball under the jersey with the answer.

Three wrong answers (i.e. “strikes”) and the game was over. Every three problems he answered correctly (i.e. “balls”), he was given a small piece of candy (I used Smarties).

This game was a home run!